coindesk.com
The European Central Bank (ECB) is pushing back against surveillance fears over its upcoming digital euro with a senior official insisting it will offer more privacy protection than existing bank transfers, not less.
ECB executive board member Piero Cipollone said in a recent interview the Eurosystem would be structurally incapable of linking specific individuals to their digital euro transactions, whether conducted online or offline.
"At present, in the case of a bank transfer, all the transaction details are known to the parties involved," Cipollone said. "The digital euro would guarantee greater protection for privacy. The digital euro guarantees the maximum level of privacy that current technology can offer."
Cipollone’s reassurances come as public opposition to the digital euro has grown over fears that The ECB’s planned digital euro and other central bank digital currencies (CBDC) often face public opposition over concerns they would give governments the ability to monitor and control how citizens spend their money.
Austrian digital rights group Epicenter.works and other civil society organizations said the digital euro's privacy guarantees "rely too heavily on institutional assurances rather than technical enforcement," in a joint statement earlier this month. Legislative promises, they warned, can be weakened in implementation, reinterpreted in court, or simply broken.
Cipollone went further with privacy reassurances, saying payments conducted offline would take place directly between individuals, with details known only to the payer and the payee, equivalent to a cash transaction. Only banks involved in online transactions would be able to identify users, and only for anti-money laundering purposes, he added.
He also pushed back on fears that the digital euro would replace physical cash. He pointed to the ECB's recently launched public consultation on the design of new euro banknotes as evidence of the institution's commitment to keeping cash in circulation. "It wouldn't make any sense to do this if it were planning to get rid of cash," he said.
His comments follow the European Parliament's approval of the digital euro regulation last month, which is scheduled for rollout in 2029. ECB President Christine Lagarde recently told Europeans that the digital euro and physical cash would coexist.